Attracta dog helps FBI to track killer

Published: August 22, 2006 | 4609th good news item since 2003

The sniffer dog that helped detectives jail evil killer Trevor Hamilton has just returned from assisting the FBI with a murder probe in America.

Six-year-old English springer spaniel Eddie’s career took off internationally shortly after he returned to Ulster for a third time to help in the hunt for missing Arlene Arkinson.

Eddie helped police nail Hamilton after the victim-recovery dog found blood from Attracta Harron (63) on a mat from Hamilton’s burnt-out Hyundai car.

He burned it the day that he murdered the retired librarian.

Eddie found her body in a shallow grave in April 2003.

Martin Grime, Eddie’s handler at the Dog Unit attached to South Yorkshire Police Station, today told how he has returned to Tyrone to search for Arlene (15).

She went missing after leaving a disco in Bundoran, Co Donegal, on August 13 1994.

Police have recently been concentrating their search in her native Castlederg in Tyrone, where it is thought she was murdered.

Mr Grime said today: “We were over earlier this year and three times in total since the Attracta Harron case.

“With the Attracta investigation we came over for a week and on the last day, before we came back to the UK, we decided we would search the car. The stuff Eddie found was then taken away for forensic examination.

“Then when a search area was identified Eddie found the body as well. As far as the Arlene case goes, however, there has been nothing to date.”

Eddie has just returned from the US where he has been helping the FBI in a murder case.

Mr Grime said: “Dogs like Eddie are very, very good at what they do and he has lots of operational experience.

“I do some training with him every day.”

Hamilton (23) received Ulster’s longest prison sentence after he was jailed for life for the murder of Mrs Harron.